It is well-known to produce food products containing a wafer. Examples of such products are ice-cream sandwiches, ice-cream cones, chocolate bars, sandwiched cookies etc.
Wafers are generally produced by introducing a batter into a hot mould followed by removing the wafer from the mould. If desired the wafer--while still hot--may then be formed into the desired shape. For example a flat hot wafer may be rolled into a cone shape.
Wafers generally have a crisp texture i.e. they tend to break when they are formed into a different shape for example by bending. To prevent this breaking the wafer needs to be softened prior to deformation. To ensure that the final shaped wafer has a crisp texture it is preferred that the softening of the wafer is a process which can easily be reversed.
One possible method of reversibly softening wafers is to heat the wafer. Heating to a temperature above the glass-transition point results in a soft wafer which can be shaped and then cooled to re-gain its crispness.
In industrial processes to shape wafers the application of heat, however leads to several problems.
Firstly, the reheating by using conventional means such as cooking plates or ovens requires a relatively long time. In a continuous process this leads to high costs e.g. for space and investments.
Also, long heating times lead to an undesirable continuation of the cooking process of the wafer, which may lead to over-cooked or even burnt wafers.
Thirdly the application of conventional heating means for softening wafers, renders it difficult to interrupt the production process for a short time, for example if at another stage of the production line some time is needed for changing or repairing a production element. Such an interruption would mean that the (hot) wafers would need to wait longer until they can be further processed. This again can lead to further overcooking and burning of the wafers.
The present invention aims at solving the above problems by providing a new method of reversibly softening wafers which method can be carried out in a short time and which can easily be interrupted.
Surprisingly it has been found that the use of infrared radiation leads to an adequate softening of the wafers, while the above mentioned problems do not occur.